My MacBook Air died about 4 weeks ago, right in the middle of a busy work period. There were no other spare Macs around at work, but there was a nice new Vaio laptop. I thought it was about time I used a PC again, to keep my hand it, so I was fine about switching. I don’t want to be someone who raves about how much better Macs are than PCs, so I went into it with an open mind.
The initial switching of devices was pretty straightforward, thanks mainly to cloud storage of all the project documents I was working on. I just logged in to the cloud services, and was pretty much back where I should have been. My emails, calendars and contacts are in IMAP and Exchange servers, and they were pretty easy to set up and retrieve too. I felt like I was back in business, without much bother. Hooray for cloud computing.
I’ve been using the PC for about 4 weeks now. I’ve got used to using Control instead of Apple when using MS Office, and there were bound to be procedures that just took a bit of learning and getting used to. However, I still miss the old Mac, and here are some reasons why:
Things I like about the Mac (OS X Lion)
- Reopening my Finder windows after a restart.
It’s great to know that if I need to restart the Mac after a software update my windows will reopen exactly as I left them. I’ve really missed this, especially because the PC keeps updating its software without asking me to, and once happily restarted without me expecting it. Grr.
- Being able to click on a date in a message and add it to the calendar.
I find it so much easier to read an email, control-click on a date in it, and save it to my calendar, as in the Mac. In Outlook, it’s a tortuous process of actually having to remember the date (I have a terrible memory), switch to the calendar, manually move to the date in question, and then click to insert it. Too much mental load.
- Being able to write an email, grab the icon of the document I want to attach, and pull it into the email body to be an attachment.
I spent ages writing an email in Outlook, and wanted to add in a document I’d just written. I couldn’t work out how to just put that document into the window next to it. Someone had to show me the right menu section in Word that would then let me open the document’s location in a new window, cluttering up the desktop, and then drag it into the email. Too much work.
- Quicksilver or Spotlight to find and open files.
Due to my poor memory, I often can’t remember where I save files, even if the save locations are pretty intuitive to me. The use of Quicksilver on my Mac, or just Spotlight is a simple way for me to locate files. I can’t find anything on the PC that works as well as Spotlight used to on the Mac. When I’ve tried a search I’ve never been sure exactly where it’s searched. I have the same problems when searching for an email in Outlook. I know that a message is in there somewhere, but the search option just doesn’t find it.
- Quicksilver to open and process files
I know that Quicksilver is a 3rd party app, and I’m sure there must be similar apps for Windows. But I rely so much on just typing in the name of the file I want and Quicksilver just locating and opening it for me that actually having to search through my PC and the server slows my pace of work right down.
- Synchronize X to take ensure I have the most up to date copies of files that I can work on offline or away from the office, and then put back on when I’m back in.
- Synchronize X to do this as soon as it detects that I’m connected to the server.
- Auto location detect by wi fi network when I’m in the office, to auto run events, like connect to the server, adjust volume, etc.
Working out of the office is essential. I get loads done on the train to work. That means that when I get to work I need to make sure that my updated files all go back on the server, and the most recent files are synced up. Using a chain of events with a small location detecting app, which detects the work wi fi, and then connects to the server, and another app that then syncs up all the files makes my life much easier. It does it all in the background, and I can get on with more important things.
- My Mac remembers my screens resolution settings and what my main monitor is when I unplug and plug it back in again. The PC has to be told every time, and the resolutions of both monitors reset.
For some reason, every time I unplug the PC laptop from the external monitor and take it home, then bring it back and plug it in again, I have to rejig the screen resolution and tell it which is my main monitor. The Mac didn’t do this. It’s a pain.
- When you move something to the trash, you don’t have to confirm you want to do it, as on the PC. Why should you need to confirm this? You only need to confirm when you empty the trash.
- Threaded email in Mail
I hated this when it was first introduced, but now I have trouble working without it. I’ve missed messages without the threads.
- I prefer having separate Mail and Calendar applications, so I can view them side by side on different screens.
Outlook is calendar and email and contacts all bundled up together, so I can only see one at a time. Often I want to compare email with my calendars, to work out when to set up a meeting. On the Mac, this is easy. On the PC, I have to switch between Outlook views.
- Spaces
A great way of working when there’s a lot going on. I can stuff documents in a space and come back to them later. My PC desktop is often cluttered, with loads of windows minimised in the task bar. The less clutter for me, the better.
- The Outlook mail search isn’t through everything by default, just the folder you’re in. Even then, when I think I’ve done a search through all folders and accounts, it still doesn’t find an email that I know is somewhere in Outlook.
When I do a search, I want to see EVERYTHING. I don’t see the point of a search that won’t search through every possible place. I’m not going to be overwhelmed if I can filter down that massive search return list, or order it along dimensions like date, name, subject, etc. But I don’t want to know that I’ve searched everything.
Things I like about the PC
- It’s faster than my old mac. No spinning beach ball.
More an issue of hardware though, I would think.
- I can set up calendar invitations that appear to work. On my Mac Exchange calendars would occasionally change back to ‘New Event’ headings.
OS X Lion had some issues connecting to our work Exchange server. It’s nice to know that if I set one up now, it’ll stay there and I can forget about it until the reminder pops up.
So not much in the PCs favour. I expect some of this is just a case of me being used to one system, and having to learn another, but my method of working seems to be much more suited to the way the Mac works. I think that’s because over time my working style has adjusted to fit the Mac’s style, but it’s also because the Mac is flexible enough to fit to the way I want to work.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia.
Comments